8 Best Athletes to Follow on Twitter

If you are a sports fan, Twitter is a great medium to follow your favorite athletes and teams. Whether you are looking to read news about the latest game, interact with fans, reach out to athletes or follow an in-game trending topic, Twitter is the place for real time interaction.

According to Mashable, the 2014 Super Bowl generated 24.9 million tweets during the live telecast, narrowly edging last year’s record of 24.1 million tweets. Twitter also highlights the fact that, of all the national ads during the game, approximately 58% featured a hashtag – up from 50% last year.

If you are a sports fan, there is a strong likelihood that you are addicted to Twitter and the real time sports updates the platform provides. Our goal was to provide a list of the 8 best athletes to follow on Twitter. These athletes excel in their profession in some way, shape or form. One thing they all have in common is their skill set on the microblogging platform.

Kobe Bryant – NBA (@KobeBryant)
Kobe was a tad bit late arriving to the Twitter platform. He didn’t create his account until January 4, 2013. Since then, he has amassed over 4.62 million followers. His in-game tweets and brutal honesty is what makes the “Black Mamba” such an intriguing follow

Richard Sherman – NFL – (@RSherman_25)
Richard Sherman mocked Tom Brady on Twitter after the Seahawks defeated the Patriots. This instantly made the Seahawks cornerback a popular figure on Twitter. Defeating the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl added more to his Twitter fame as he is now approaching one million followers.

Dana White – UFC – (@DanaWhite)
Technically, Dana White isn’t an athlete. As the President of the UFC, his straightforward Tweets and candidness has made him extremely popular not only amongst UFC fans, but throughout the sporting community. On Twitter, he will often refer to a fight as “Horrible” if it doesn’t meet his expectations.

Dufner has an extremely outgoing personality on Twitter. He is an avid Auburn Tigers fan and tweets religiously about his Alma matter and college football. Dufner sparked his own trending hashtag, #Dufnering and is one of the most popular professional golfers on Twitter with over 365,000 Twitter followers.

LeBron James – NBA – (@KingJames)
Not only the most popular player in the NBA, King James is also the most prevalent ball player on Twitter with over 12 million Twitter followers. The Heat forward regularly posts pictures and Tweets documenting his everyday life, which is exciting for the fans of LeBron James. Even though LeBron James relocated to Miami from Cleveland, which disappointed many fans, he still has plenty of admirers on Twitter.

Paul Bissonnette – NHL (@BizNasty2Point0)
Paul Bissonnette doesn’t receive the most ice time with the Phoenix Coyotes but the fourth liner has no problem poking fun at his lack of playing time. His hilarious tweets have earned @BizNasty2Point0 over 500,000 Twitter followers. His Twitter bio states the following. “Play in the NHL for the Phoenix Coyotes. Well sort of. Once played in the ECHL for the Wheeling Nailers, seriously, that was the name. Living the dream.”

Mario Balotelli – Soccer (@FinallyMario)
You have to give props to an athlete that can tweet in multiple languages to his fans! Balotelli is a premier soccer player for AC Milan. According to Sports Illustrated, Super Mario was made for Twitter. Since joining in May, the flamboyant 22-year-old has used the platform to showcase his extravagant lifestyle – posting Twitpics of his camouflage Bentley and a custom-made statue of himself – and rollicking personality.

Nick Swisher – MLB – (@NickSwisher)
Swisher was an early adaptor to Twitter and has always hit it out of the park with his social media game. The Cleveland Indians outfielder and Ohio State alumni constantly tweets while giving fans insight as to what is going on in his mind before and after games.

Regardless of the sport the athlete participates in or their background, Twitter provides all athletes with a great outlet to connect directly with their fans. Hopefully this list will provide sports junkies with followers that they need to add to their feed.

Jason Parks

Our Mission

The Media Captain is your one stop shop for everything digital. We’re a Digital Marketing Company based in Columbus serving clients throughout the country. Our goal is simple. Our Digital Marketing Agency is motivated to build and drive traffic to your website while helping you generate new online business.

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Lauren is a public relations guru who also loves music and constantly stays abreast on the latest fashion trends.

Lauren helps our clients generate exposure, which has major SEO benefits. She will connect a local tennis club (for example) to a major tennis websites blog where they become a contributor by writing article content and providing video content. In turn, this gets referral traffic to the clients website while providing a backlink, an important SEO metric.

Lauren also spearheads the content creation side of things. She writes client blog content, email blasts, website copy and social media posts.

In her spare time, Lauren enjoys going to concerts at Express Live and trying new restaurants around the Short North. She will help keep your brand on the cutting edge.

Carson Jones – Growth Strategist

Carson is originally from Louisville, Kentucky and brings some Southern charm to The Media Captain’s team.

He helps with the business development side. When you rank well on Google, there is new business to nurture!

His mom in Louisville owns a video production company so Carson is able to easily relate to other small business owners. He is also very active in the digital world. He makes connections with influencers on Instagram to help promote numerous e-commerce endeavors.

In his spare time, Carson likes to golf and take it easy with friends. He is also a huge Gary Vaynerchuk junkie and is constantly listening to his podcasts and YouTube videos. Carson highly recommends listening to Gary V if you want to get motivated and learn about the digital marketing world.

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Alex Krempasky – Digital Marketing Strategist

Alex is an old school newspaper journalist at heart who thrives in the fast-paced digital environment.

In the past, he worked for the Columbus Crew and Oakland Raiders and in his spare time works the press box for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

His journalistic mentality perfectly carries over to the digital marketing world. Alex helps craft content for internal and external articles while overseeing clients SEO campaigns. He also handles the content creation on the social media side and helps craft email marketing campaigns for clients.

Alex is the “last line of defense” before a graphic, article, social post, email blast or anything else that touches the web is posted on behalf of the client.

Alex is also a huge Jimmy Buffett and Green Day fan. Back in the day, he started his own band. That’s a conversation for another time!

Stefanie Parks – Ecommerce & Adwords Strategist

Stefanie is an e-commerce guru who just so happens to be Jason’s sister. If you’ve already read Jason’s bio, Stefanie is the very same sister who helped Jason sell all of those Beanie Babies at the garage sale many years ago. Stefanie also got started in sales early, taking orders and payment for handmade necklaces while at overnight camp and then fulfilling the orders once she got home after the summer. She almost paid for her whole summer with that money! What can we say, sales and entrepreneurship must run in the Parks family!

In addition to starting DermWarehouse with Jason, Stefanie was also instrumental in growing The Media Captain. Since day one, she has either worked full-time or consulted on certain projects for TMC. You should have seen The Media Captain’s first website back in 2010 before Stefanie re-launched a new version (thank goodness). Stefanie has a good eye and knows when changes and improvements should be made. She will always guide the process seamlessly and take the lead when necessary. Stefanie is not scared to make her opinion known and to fight for the things she strongly believes in.

If you need help on an e-commerce project, Stefanie is your girl. She has grown DermWarehouse into one of the top dermatological skincare websites in the country by utilizing her skillset in SEO, Google Shopping, content creation and on-site SEO. She is able to take all of this knowledge from growing her own e-commerce shop and help clients execute their own digital strategy.

In her spare time, Stefanie loves to travel. She has climbed to Mount Everest Base Camp, floated down the Amazon River, and gone scuba diving with sharks. She has been to nearly 50 countries around Asia, South America, and Europe and loves to share travel tips/stories. The one thing that Stefanie loves more than travel, however, is food. She will eat anything and (somehow) is always hungry. If you’re a foodie, chat with Stef, and she will certainly give you a run for your money. As much as she loves travel and food, however, there’s nothing she loves more than digital marketing and e-commerce (and no, we didn’t make her write that).

Stefanie has a keen business sense and knows what needs to be done to help your company generate more sales and more revenue. She will say what’s on her mind and always give you her honest, straightforward opinion.

Dylan Weaver – Digital Marketing Strategist

Dylan’s background is in the journalism industry. Before joining The Media Captain, he worked for ABC 6 as a production specialist.

Dylan is a jack of all trades. He is proficient in video production, photography, editing and graphic design. He also is an Adwords and SEO guru. If there is something broken that needs fixed at our office, he also handles this (like we said, he his a jack of all trades).

Dylan is responsible for overseeing and managing client accounts and making sure all of the pieces connect for each digital campaign.

Dylan loves the outdoors. He often travels to Hocking Hills to hike, rock climb and whenever he gets the chance, camps outdoors. He is also actively involved in his church and runs the production of the Sunday services for Jersey Church.

Michelle Dechicco - Front End Web Developer

Michelle is a hybrid of a developer and a digital marketer. She assists in putting together client websites but also helps to create graphics, conduct on-site SEO audits, landing pages and implementing dynamic retargeting and conversion pixels.

Michelle’s development and marketing background was molded when she worked for a local fitness company. She now strengthens all of The Media Captain’s client websites with her diverse skill-set. She is a graduate of Ohio State University.

Mike Cottrill – Director of Application Development

Mike is the development lead for The Media Captain. He will get his hands dirty and custom code a site or install a WordPress theme while also overseeing other developers on staff to ensure a smooth sailing project, from start to finish.

If you have a technical question pertaining to your website or want to make sure you are taking the right steps in choosing a certain platform or technology, you’ll speak with Mike directly.

Mike grew up in Chillicothe. He graduated from DeVry in 2000 and has over 18 years of development experience.

He leveraged his passion for development and sports by taking a job as an app developer for STATS, the sports data company in Chicago. Other development career opportunities for SafeAuto Insurance and Chase brought him back to the capital city of the Buckeye State, where he has resided with his family since 2008.

Mike’s development skillset on both the front end and back end of a website are second to none. He is well versed in HTML and CSS and is also proficient with all modern programming languages.

Mike has built custom websites and applications for Fortune 500 companies. He also developed SafeAuto’s mobile app from scratch and took it to the Android and Apple Marketplace.

Unlike most developers, Mike has a marketing mindset, which makes him a perfect fit for the development lead at a marketing agency. He is constantly creating new apps to take to the marketplace. In his spare time, he enjoys taking in sports and collecting sports cards with his son.

About the Owner, Jason Parks

Jason isn’t your typical agency guy. At the age of ten, Jason’s parents left him home alone. He decided to take this opportunity to check out the neighborhood and noticed that there was a community garage sale taking place. Within an hour, with the help of his sister, he had all of their Beanie Babies (remember those?) lined up on the front lawn, ready to be sold.

Jason’s entrepreneurial spirit has been a key factor in The Media Captain’s growth into one of the largest agencies in Ohio. It is this spirit and love of what he does that enables him and his team to generate great results for other businesses.

In high school, while most people worked a standard job, Jason sold sports tickets throughout the country on eBay. In college, he posted a job as a tennis instructor on Craigslist and turned this into a three-year job with a steady flow of clients. Jason always found a way to market services or products on the Internet to generate a profit.

After graduating college, Jason wanted to become a sports reporter. His background was in digital video. He received a job offer at a news station in Butte, Montana but decided to utilize his skillset in video, social media and digital marketing instead to start The Media Captain. The domain name (themediacaptain.com) was available for $10. A captain is viewed as a leader and his goal has always been for The Media Captain to be the leader in digital marketing. And this is the story of how The Media Captain was born in 2010! There was a void in the market for professionals who could help brands bolster their social media presence and Jason was able to capitalize on this gap in the marketplace.

Jason has worked directly with large brands on digital campaigns like McGraw-Hill, Sears, SafeAuto and Luxxotica. He has also run campaigns with the UFC, NASCAR, the Cleveland Cavaliers and consulted with the Columbus Blue Jackets on sponsorship activation efforts.

Jason loves getting his hands dirty, it is a philosophy that he feels separates The Media Captain from the competition. When you run a business, you know what works and what doesn’t work, which benefits the client.

Jason recently decided to start an e-commerce company, DermWarehouse, which sells dermatological skincare products throughout the country. His dad, a dermatologist in Columbus, has sold ten products at his skincare practice for many years. Jason decided to scale this operation so the products could be sold throughout the country.

In addition, Jason is a regular contributor on Entrepreneur.com and has been featured in the New York Times, The Huffington Post, Inc., the Columbus Dispatch, Social Media Today, DigiDay and Search Engine Watch (to name a few).

To function properly, Jason needs at least three cups of coffee per day. In the past, he made it a New Year’s resolution to scale back on the caffeine, but he failed miserably. He also enjoys rooting on his hometown Columbus Blue Jackets, as he is a hockey fanatic. His favorite restaurant in town is Condado, the local taco shop across the street from The Media Captain’s office. He also enjoys working out and hanging out with family and friends.